Breaking the link between poverty and early school leaving is vital if the problem of the long-term unemployed is to be solved. According to UCD economist Dr Frank Barry: "If poorly qualified, you are more likely to be poor and unemployed; if poor and unemployed your children are more likely to receive poor qualifications."

Dr Barry presented a broad range of data pointing out that today's early school leavers contain disproportionate numbers of those who are unemployed long term.

He said that boys with executives or managers as fathers were six times more likely to sit the leaving cert than those from unskilled or semi-skilled families and almost 13 times more likely to enter third-level education.

According to another UCD economist, Mr Joe Durkan, the amount of money being given to the current Operational Programme for Education was "wholly inadequate" and would take about 12 years to provide the necessary education for those who are unemployed long term.